Guidelines for distribution of pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine will be released this week, said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer.<\/p>\n
Those guidelines will then be used by state and local health authorities would begin to develop their own schedules.<\/p>\n
At least one COVID-19 vaccine is close to arriving in Alaska according to Zink, who Monday told reporters there’ll be a lot of progress made this week toward developing guidelines for distributing the medicine. With the vaccine almost ready, state health officials now want to make Alaskans aware of what the vaccine is and how distribution will work.<\/p>\n
“This week is an incredibly packed week in the vaccine world,” Zink said in a video news conference with members of the Department of Health and Social Services. “They are coming. It’s incredibly hopeful and it’s exciting.”<\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices<\/a> is meeting Tuesday, Zink said, and from that meeting would come a set of priority guidelines for distributing Pfizer’s vaccine currently awaiting federal approval.<\/p>\n The guidelines from the CDC are not set in stone, Zink said, and are meant to provide information for local authorities in their own planning. Emergency Operations Center Planning Section Chief for the City and Borough of Juneau Robert Barr previously told the Empire the city will likely follow state guidelines on vaccine distribution.<\/p>\n In October, city and state health officials jointly organized a mass flu-vaccination effort<\/a> meant to serve as a practice for the eventual distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. That effort was able to inoculate more than 1,300 people over two days.<\/p>\n The plans being considered Tuesday are only for the vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, but other vaccines would require different guidance. Pzifer’s vaccine requires two doses and must be stored at extremely cold temperatures, said Tessa Walker-Linderman of the DHSS’ COVID-19 task force. Walker Linderman added Pfizer’s vaccine could be stored for up to 20 days using dry ice and five days in a medical freezer. Other vaccines, like the one recently submitted by another large pharmaceutical company, Moderna, will have different requirements and therefore have different guidance, she said. <\/p>\n